Personal computers utilize circuit carrying boards housed in a chassis as platforms to secure and interconnect individual electronic components. In order to provide consumer flexibility, these circuit boards, sometimes called system planars, are frequently designed to accommodate additional circuit boards, or expansion cards, to provide additional and/or alternative functionality. For example, many personal computer system planars are designed with expansion card slots for standard bus interfaces, such as ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) and EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), into which expansion cards for peripheral devices, such as hard disk controllers, tape controllers, modems and other I/O controllers, may be connected. Many of these expansion cards require connections to devices and equipment external to the computer chassis itself. Accordingly, access openings in the computer chassis, generally located at the back of the chassis and adjacent to the expansion card connectors, are provided to allow for connection between the expansion cards and peripheral devices.
The connection between expansion cards and peripheral devices is accomplished by providing a connector on the expansion card into which a cable, associated with a peripheral device, is electrically connected. Typically, the connector has a female connection into which the cable, having a male connector, is inserted. The connection is maintained by a friction-fit between the male and female connectors. However, some friction-fit connections may become inadvertently disconnected which can cause catastrophic failures in the computer system. In order to protect against such inadvertent disconnections, many cables are semi-permanently secured to the connector by a screw or other mechanism.
An ongoing attempt has been made within the computer industry to provide quick and efficient maintenance of computer components. One difficulty encountered in accessing and maintaining system planars into which expansion cards have been connected is the necessity of removing the expansion cards from the system planar prior to removing the system planar from the computer chassis. This problem is compounded when an expansion card is connected to a peripheral device by means of a cable, particularly where the connection is secured by a screw or other mechanism. In this circumstance, all of the cabling must be disconnected from the expansion card prior to removing the expansion card from the system planar. Further, most cabling is placed at the rear of a computer chassis which is generally difficult to access, thereby compounding the problems associated with quickly accessing the system planar.
As a consequence, what is needed is an apparatus which permits externally connected expansion cards to remain within the computer chassis while the system planar is removed from the chassis.